How can you find out more about the UAE? Tourist guides, museums, Time Out magazine (well, actually, now you mention it…)? Or you could discover it for yourself. That is the attitude taken by the Emirates Natural History Group (ENHG), a band of experts and nature enthusiasts who have set about filling in the blanks in the UAE’s natural history and archeological past.
‘The UAE currently has no natural history museum,’ Dr Andrew Bean, ENHG’s Abu Dhabi excursion secretary, explains. It hasn’t really had time to fill one up. With branches in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai, this is where the ENHG comes in. Formed in 1976 by one JNB (‘Bish’) Brown, the groups are open to anyone with an interest in the world around them. Its members range from serious experts to gifted amateurs, to the just plain curious, but as Andrew explains, there is so much to see.
‘You think about Charles Darwin and the Galapagos Islands – in the UAE, you have all this wildlife on your doorstep. Step out of the city and you’re immediately amongst nature and history. You can find flint arrow heads just lying on the ground.’ As well as organising regular lectures at the Cultural Foundation aimed at an amateur audience and distributing a monthly newsletter and twice-yearly journal (Tribulus), the group also provide frequent camping trips and treks to gather information. These are usually led by one or two experts.
‘Groups range from six to 30 people, with a mixture of young couples, families and older members. We recently took a desert trip to look at the stone age burial site at Jebel Buhays. We went snorkelling in Musandam and found fossil petroglyphs, and we just did a fossil hunting trip in Oman. The UAE has been occupied by people for 10,000 years; there has been fauna here for millions of years. There is a lot to discover.’
Andrew is a family man, and often takes his own clan on trips with him. Mangrove walks, family weekends, mountain climbs, survey work and bird watching are common expeditions, and it is not unusual to see 10-vehicle strong convoys of enthusiasts hurtling toward the dunes, although sand driving courses are often run to help newbies keep up.
‘Our aim is to educate and inspire about nature in the UAE. The desert ecology is full of life. It used to be African Savannah, which is why we still have oryx and gazelle – it isn’t just lumps of sand. There is an amazing amount of sealife, and the UAE is a major stop for transitory migrating birds.’
The group has discovered a number of new species, but as Andrew admits, these are usually the province of experts. However, there does exist a fossilised sea urchin named after a member of the Dubai group. Now there’s souvenir for you – a species to call your very own. Another aspect of ENHG and one that is open to all members is the annual photography competition. Members are encouraged to go out into nature and open their eyes. The results are often stunning, and a useful document of something which otherwise might never be seen.
The aim of the ENHG is admirable. For something which started as one man’s hobby in the ’70s, it has since grown both in size and scale, and it has done so via the enthusiasm of the public. It’s all too easy to see just desert, but as Andrew explains, ‘the deserts are surprisingly busy’, and thanks to the guided excursions, not only do you learn more about the UAE, its wildlife and its past, but help to document that knowledge for future generations. Yes, you might find your very own crumbly urchin, but whereas every other trip into the desert usually involves destroying bits of it in oversized 4x4s, it makes a change that someone should seek to do the opposite. Long may it continue.
Membership of the ENHG is open to anyone for Dhs100 per individual or family per year. Simply go to one of the lectures held at the Cultural Foundation (7.30pm) on the first and third Tuesday of the month and fill in an application form. Visit www.enhg.org for information on all branches.
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